Outdoor light strings are popular and versatile light sources that can be used to illuminate an outdoor area by suspending a string of lights across or above the area to light the surrounding environment. These light strings can generally be characterized as having a central electrical cable of a length often about twelve (12) to eighteen (18) meters. A plurality of secondary cables are affixed to, and in electrical communication with, the central cable at roughly equidistant points. At the opposite end of the secondary cable is a lamp holder with a lamp bulb in the lamp holder. The secondary cables are designed to hang from the suspended central cable and the amount by which they hang below the central cable is determined by the length of the secondary cable. More specifically, the secondary cables are typically spaced at one-half (½) to one (1) meter intervals along the central cable, with the secondary cable having a length of roughly five (5) to ten (10) centimeters, although the overall length of the light string, the length of the secondary cables and the spacing of lights can be varied to meet consumer demand.
The central electrical cable has a first end and a second end, with a male plug at the first end and a female plug at the second end. A plurality of light strings can be strung together by attaching the female plug of a first string to the male plug of a second string. The outdoor light strings often will have a heavy-duty coating, such as of PVC, to help protect the light string from the elements typically encountered in outdoor use.
Light strings have been known for many years. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,758,982 to E. P. Seghers discloses an invention entitled “Decorative Wiring.” The invention is described “as an arrangement of wires for supplying current to electric light in series and has for one of its objects the provision of an arrangement of supply wires and lights for decorative purposes, and which shall adapt itself to extension by the addition of any number of sets of lights within the carrying capacity of the supply wires.” The '982 patent has a employs a design that would not be considered aesthetically pleasing by today's standards and is crude in its implementation. Numerous improvements have been made in the intervening years. However, further improvements are still needed to reduce the costs of the lights and streamline production. The present invention provides some of these widely desired improvements for outdoor light strings as will become evident in the following disclosure.